I'll never understand this. How is Dwight Howard not significantly more maligned than LeBron James? He is the fucking WORST. Aside from LeBron's two mistakes: 1.) The Decision, which was admittedly WAY-the-hell over the top and egotistically unparalleled. (But still just a free-agency decision that got all dolled…

Well, he DID destroy the security footage. That's kind of the Patriot Way.

I agree that Simmons approached the Doc saga dispassionately. But I don't see it as Bayless-ian. Bayless is out to promote HIS agenda. That's what rubs people the wrong way. If Bayless just came up with crackpot theories and focused on the subject matter, he'd just be a contrarian talking head. There are plenty of…

Simmons is making speculative statements, yes. But I don't know why Rivers is to be believed. He is going to do and say what's in his best interest here. His previous actions/statements have laid out several contradictions... and if Rivers is telling the truth, then Danny Ainge was lying. Frankly, I don't care who is…

This is pretty clear to anyone with a sense of what's genuine and what's Pro Sports Omertà. Simmons was once the gold standard for a certain perspective in sportswriting. Now he is stale, lame, seldom funny, but still possesses the ability to insightful on certain subjects, especially the NBA (though only when he…

I think we're missing the biggest stunner of all from last night...

I love that Simmons doesn't care about controversy. Doesn't back down from Rivers, tries to talk about the Decision and gets mysteriously cut off when the Heat win the title, always willing to brutally honest about anything (including ESPN) on Twitter and on his podcast.

It just shows how they only "embrace debate" in a situation that's not interesting or controversial.

For the first time ever, I am a huge Simmons fan. Him immediately going back on the offensive when they cut back after the Doc interview was spectacular, made even moreso by the stark contrast of the other talking heads slipping into ESPN "we can't say anything negative or controversial" coward mode.

Quite honestly Simmons can't win with you guys. Can you pick ONE narrative and stick with it? You're all over the place ... you're like Rufus (RIP)

As a former member of a golf club that went through this exact scenario, here is my take on what may be going on.

Tommy, you're missing the mark on this one. Not everyone with character issues commits murder. Everyone who commits murder has character issues.

"but what kind of ramifications would such a radical change bring?"

In fairness to denim bans, if you are a country club, you have to consider the possibility of Michael Jordan joining.

They may allow denim, but it'll be a cold day in hell before they accept any Levis.

So I guess they can finally let these two in.

"It's absurd for King to make the argument (as he's doing either deliberately or because he's a moron) that Hernandez fell in the draft because other NFL teams wisely calculated his likelihood to orchestrate the execution-style murder of somebody"

I don't think he, or anyone else, is making that claim. I think the…

There's absolutely an appropriate and measured way to address the fact that his questionable behavior had been previous topic of discussion. I see nothing wrong with mentioning that his reputation had followed him dating back to his college career and was a likely factor in his draft position. I think it would be…

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. Hernandez could have kept his nose clean and to say then that you can't predict the future would't have been wrong in that case. But that's not what happened and no one is saying his propensity to commit murder was what caused his slide, but rather the guy had issues…

This is the first time Los Angeles looks worse than Cleveland. Fuck, I thought I'd never say that.